Two Montgomery residents among those killed in Navy Yard shooting -- Gazette.Net

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Two Montgomery residents among those killed in Navy Yard shooting

Gunman killed 12 on Monday in D.C.

by Sarah ScullyStaff Writer

Vishnu B. Pandit

Two of the victims identified in Monday’s shooting at the Washington Navy Yard were residents of Montgomery County.

According to D.C. Metropolitan Police, John Roger Johnson, 73, of Derwood and Vishnu Pandit, 61, of North Potomac were among 12 people shot and killed by a gunman at the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington.

He was born in Mumbai, India, in November 1951 and moved to the U.S. when he was in his 20s. He attended a marine engineering college in Calcutta and later enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1974 before moving to Maryland and raising two sons with his wife, Anjali Pandit.

The Post reported that a Hindu service will be held for Pandit and that the family has requested donations in lieu of flowers to the Wounded Warriors Project, organizations supporting the Navy or the Humane Society of Montgomery County.

One neighbor called Pandit “a very good friend, a very good person,” before declining further comment.

Another neighbor who also declined to provide her name said, “I think everyone’s just in shock.”

Pandit and his wife “were very good friends. They would do anything for their neighbors. He will be greatly missed, he was such a sweet man,” she said. “Everybody loves them.”

Pandit loved his golden retriever, Bailey, she said.

“You can live next to somebody forever and not know the intimate details of their life, but what you do know about him you love,” the neighbor said.

Johnson also was a civilian employee of the Navy.

One of his neighbors told The Washington Post that Johnson “always had a smile on his face,” adding that Johnson had lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years.

Johnson was further described as a “smart man.”

“He loved children. He loved our grandchildren. No one could ask for a better neighbor,” she told The Post.